asking for help with GGG boutique 60's fuzz... also, who has the coolest knobs?

[Drunk_on_NyQuil]

just put my first pedal onto a breadboard( http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/fuzzface_b_lo_pp3.gif ). it fuzzes and the trimpot adjustment makes for some killer tone changes, but if i turn the "fuzz" pot all the way up, i get a high pitched frequency through my amp. it cleans up with a little movement back down, but im curious if anyone has ever had this problem? also, the contour control seems to make more of an adjustment to volume than anything else.

also, since it is my first project, and i have to have some odd knobs; who has, or has seen, the most kick a$$ knobs? im using the 16mm pot. thinking of getting some aluminum and machine my own. the enclosure is going to be made of copper. ill post some pics when its done. this forum is a HUGE help for anyone, so thanks to everyone who contributes. have a great day!

     ryan

[deviltone]

I actually had that problem with my Fulltone '69 about 5 years ago.... I sent it to fulltone and they fixed whatever was wrong with it.... That's pedal's long gone.    that's interesting that the original had the same problem as it's clone.....

[whythisreason?]

for some really cool knobs you can check out:

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/products.asp?dept=1218

especially the raytheon knobs are very tasty!

[Ge_Whiz]

Any Fuzz Face is just a gnat's whisker away from being an oscillator, so yes, it's not an uncommon problem - or 'feature'. There are various ways to fix it, but it's easier just to back off the gain a bit.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Also shield the in & out wires (esp. the in).

[dano12]

just put my first pedal onto a breadboard( http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/fuzzface_b_lo_pp3.gif ). it fuzzes and the trimpot adjustment makes for some killer tone changes, but if i turn the "fuzz" pot all the way up, i get a high pitched frequency through my amp. it cleans up with a little movement back down, but im curious if anyone has ever had this problem? also, the contour control seems to make more of an adjustment to volume than anything else.

also, since it is my first project, and i have to have some odd knobs; who has, or has seen, the most kick a$$ knobs? im using the 16mm pot. thinking of getting some aluminum and machine my own. the enclosure is going to be made of copper. ill post some pics when its done. this forum is a HUGE help for anyone, so thanks to everyone who contributes. have a great day!

     ryan

Arggggh!!! I've been having the exact same problem. I've been fighting my Fuzz Face clone for close to three weeks now and am about to throw in the towel. My build allows me to switch between Ge and SI transistors, the SI ones are decent, but the GE ones just plain sound like crap. And when I max the fuzz knob, the thing squeals like crazy regardless of my bias setting.

I'm not a pro at this stuff, but I swear I've tried every permutation/combination to get this working. The one variable in my circuit is that it is not in a box yet--as I debug it there are really long wires leading to pots and and the in/out jacks. I *am* using shield wires on the in/out lines but I just cannot tame this beast!

[Drunk_on_NyQuil]

hmmm.. is sheilding the input and output wire just using a sheilded wire? i thought it might be because on the breadboard i have a pretty fair amount of jumpers running around, thinking they may cause interference at high gain. thanks for the help!

     ryan

[warioblast]

Did you try to adjust the 33k & the 330R ?

During the last month I built a couple Si fuzz face and each time I ended up with the high pitch, squealing (what ever you call it) thing.
In a thread I read, Erik Miller (Euthymia FX) recommended to make the connections between the 8.2k, 330R resistors & 0.1uF output cap as short as possible.
So I decided to use for the first time my breadboard. I made the fuzz replacing the 8.2k Q2 collector resistor with a 10k trimpot but I still had the high pitch with both knobs cranked up.
Lastly, I took off the 33k & 330R and replace them with a 50K pot & a 1k pot. I tweaked both for some time...
and the squealing was gone 

This is my fuzz face. It has BC109B transistors (more or less hFE 380-400). Q2 collector voltage is set to 4.56 V
10k trim set to 4.97K
1k pot (330R) set to 126R
50k pot (33k) set to 28.4k
Tone is insane  Hendrix meet the Stooges.
I may be love it more than my Analogman Sunface. May be I'm a Si guy